Friday, February 17, 2012

Leonor Varela

Leonor Varela Palma (born December 29, 1972) is a Chilean actress, and model. She played the character Cleopatra in the 1999 film Cleopatra. She also has actively participated in various ecological causes such as "Save Whales Again".

Early Life

Varela was born in Santiago, Chile, the daughter of Leonor, a massage therapist, and Chilean biologist and cognitive neuroscientist Francisco Varela García. She has a sister, Alejandra, and two brothers, Javier and Gabriel. Her mother, Leonor Palma, was of French, Hungarian and Syrian descent. Varela's family fled to Costa Rica in her early childhood when her homeland was overtaken by a military regime. She subsequently resided in Germany, the U.S., and France. In the early 1990s, her parents moved back to Chile, while she remained in Paris where she studied acting at the Niels Arestrup School, L'École du Passage, and Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris.